One of the paths through which buildings gain and lose heat is by heat transfer through walls and roofs. Heat flow occurs through three basic transfer modes: conduction (through insulation and solids in the building structure), convection (air movement between building surfaces), and radiant transfer (infrared radiant exchange from one surface to other surfaces). The radiant mode of heat transfer can be reduced by the introduction of radiant barriers on building surfaces. Radiant barriers may be found attached directly to the roof deck structure of a building. Radiant barriers may also be created by applying a thermal barrier paint or coating directly to a wall or other building structure. Both these approaches of creating radiant barriers can be costly and difficult to implement, as they require adding one more single purpose insulation item to a building and it's structure.
In view of the advantages presented by the addition of a radiant barrier, such as improving thermal comfort in the interior of a building and reducing energy usage, a better way of adding a radiant barrier to a building is needed.